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Ebola: Covering a Modern Plague

December 12, 2014

The epidemic in West Africa is the worst health emergency in recent history. It has killed more than 4,000 people and prompted public hysteria. Just as health professionals struggle to contain this little-known disease, reporters are charting new protocols in safety and ethics.

This panel of media and medical experts considered some of the challenges of covering the calamity: How does one depict the horror while lending dignity to the dying? How do you conduct interviews without becoming infected? And how do you inform the public without undue alarm and stigmatization?